About

$5,866

pledged of $5,000 goal

48

backers

What we plan to do

Beginning May, our 4-man crew (director, cinematographer, sound recorder & coordinator) will embark on a forty-day journey across the United
States where we will spend a few days most in each major city filming Big Band and Jazz bands. There we will conduct interviews with band members, get
footage of the landscape, as well as recordings of as many live performances as
possible.

How we plan to do it

With a minimum of $5,000, our crew will have enough
funding to get the principle photography completed, including our travel van, as well as crew and travel expenses. The more money we
raise however, above our $5,000 goal, will go to archived footage, music
rights, distribution into festivals and marketing of the film itself. What will keep our costs down
significantly is using our own DSLR cameras, sound, and editing equipment.

In June, the post-production process will take place over three
months following the forty days of shooting. In that time span we will create a ninety-minute
documentary which will be submitted into festivals, and thereafter to be
distributed on DVDs.

Why we are doing it

The intention of our feature documentary, “
A Marvelous Era”, is to enlighten the joys and benefits of live art and live
performance based on Big Band & Jazz music, while also surveying technology through the common progression of society. As culture “progresses”, fewer children
are exposed to the fundamentals of instrumental music.

These newer methods of music require minimal aptitude
(compared to those in an Orchestra or Big Band), where only one person utilizes a laptop and a turntable and is essentially
playing pre-recorded sounds without the use of any musicians. While there are countless talented
artists and DJ’s, these current forms of musical entertainment are a departure
from the mainstream music industry as it was in the 1920’s to even the late
1960’s with bandleaders such as Tommy Dorsey or Duke Ellington.

While its true that big band music hasn't been and won't ever be as popular as it was in the 1940's, modern big band music has been able to eschew popular fads and transcend into legitimate art music. Our
goal is to inform audiences of the tribulations of increasing technology, which
often deters live art forms, and the value of the art with potential to create
additional jobs in the live entertainment business. While not only enlightening audiences of the Big Band Era,
another aspect we will incorporate is younger characters who play musical
instruments, and those who are active in the electronic music community who
share their knowledge of music and what’s to come in the future of the music
industry.